Abstract

Nasser's Egypt was a key actor in the Somali struggle for independence, supplementing its political actions with cultural and religious appeal. Direct Egyptian involvement in Somalia became clear with the April 1957 murder of Kamal al-Din Salah, the UN Egyptian representative in Mogadishu, and the re-election of Nasserist Mohamed Haji Hussein as president of the Somali Youth League the following July. From a wider perspective, these events reveal significant interactions of North-South dynamics with the East-West framework during the Somali struggle for independence. This article deals with Nasser's attempts to include Somalia in the Arab circle as well as the multi-faceted Somali reaction, and concludes that Nasserite involvement in Somalia stabled on the prevalence of the Somali circle and pan-Somali agenda. Nasser's plans failed, but Egyptian influence at large resulted in mobilizing Somali society and particularly Somali local Islam in years to come.